Tobacco.org

Mobile phone-based interventions for smoking cessation 

Summary

Can interventions delivered by mobile phones help people to stop smoking?

More evidence is needed to determine if programmes delivered over mobile phones can help people to stop smoking. This review found text message mobile phone programmes to be effective in the short-term (six weeks), and a combined Internet-mobile phone programme to be effective up to 12 months.

Jump to full article »

• Time 4 u 2 quit: Text messaging found to help smokers 

Text messaging can help smokers quit the habit, according to an international study.

A review of four trials conducted in New Zealand, Britain and Norway, found that programs to help people stop smoking that included text-messaged advice doubled the chances that smokers would be able to kick the habit for up to a year.

The trials, involving 2,600 smokers, used text messages as a way to give smokers daily advice and encouragement and also offered support when quitters needed it the most.

If they found themselves craving nicotine, for example, they could text "crave" to the program and get immediate advice on what to do.

Jump to full article »

• Editorial : A righteous war on evil weed  

Four hundred years ago this year, John Rolfe, an enterprising 24-year-old from Norfolk, arrived in the fledgling settlement of Jamestown in the English colony of Virginia. A canny businessman despite his tender years, he saw a chance to make a few bob on an old plant, genus Nicotiana, widely referred to at the time as "brown gold". . .

The tobacco companies will assuredly not answer the call to appear before the committee - fronting up is not in their corporate nature - but Harawira's determination to put the acid on them deserves applause.

It is also in tune with pressure on tobacco coming from other quarters. A Public Health Association conference in Dunedin this month discussed proposals to license tobacco retailers; to ban sales near schools; to require plain packaging bearing only health warnings; and make it easier to sue tobacco firms.

Campaigners are fond of referring to this as the "endgame" of tobacco and are talking about ending the sale of the substance within a decade. It sounds ludicrous, but it makes sense: this is a product which, used in accordance with the manufacturers' instructions, is always harmful to health and typically lethal. If it were invented today, it would be banned.

The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan became the world's first smokefree nation when it banned the sale and public consumption of tobacco almost five years ago. People who argue that it couldn't happen here should think again. In 1980, no one would have imagined this country would have smokefree workplaces, never mind bars.

Jump to full article »

Tobacco company rejects research findings 

A major tobacco company has rejected claims it is undermining the law by not following regulations on the use of graphic warnings on cigarette packets.

Researchers at Otago University said a new study of bought and discarded cigarette packs showed the regulations were not being met. . . .

"British American Tobacco's graphic health warnings meet all legal requirements," a spokeswoman said.

"The Ministry of Health has not raised any concerns with us in this regard."

Dr Hoek said use of "less offensive" graphics, including images of a diseased mouth or eye, undercut the law and public health policy.

Jump to full article »

New Cigarette Health Warning Regulations Not Being Followed  

The regulations on health warning images on cigarette packets are not being appropriately followed by tobacco companies. That's the conclusion of latest research from the University of Otago which involved a study of cigarette pack warnings after these became mandatory in August 2008.

The law requires that tobacco companies distribute evenly the different graphic health warnings over all cigarette packs. This is to ensure smokers are informed of the risks, to stimulate quitting, and to discourage young people from smoking.

However, the research on purchased cigarette packs and over 1200 discarded cigarette packs shows that the regulations are not being appropriately followed. The most offensive health warning graphics appear to be printed on packs less frequently than less disturbing images. .

"The results suggest that tobacco companies are trying to reduce the impact of graphic health warnings by limiting the number of the most disturbing images," says one of the authors and University of Otago Professor of Marketing, Janet Hoek.

"This is of concern as it undercuts the law and public health policy, which aims to reduce the serious health impact of smoking and, in particular, the 5000 deaths a year in New Zealand that are directly attributable to smoking."

Jump to full article »

Distribution of new graphic warning labels: Are tobacco companies following regulations? 

The GHWs on the purchased packs and street-collected packs both showed a distribution pattern that was generally consistent with the hypothesis ie, there were disproportionately more packs featuring images judged as "least disturbing" and disproportionately fewer of those with warnings judged "more disturbing". . . .

Conclusion

These results suggest that tobacco companies are not following the regulations, which requires even distribution of the seven different GHWs on cigarette packs; further monitoring is required to estimate the extent of this non-compliance. As an immediate measure, governments should strictly enforce all regulations applying to health warnings, particularly given that these are an effective tobacco control intervention that cost tax payers nothing.

Jump to full article »

• Tobacco companies undermining law - researcher  

A major tobacco company has rejected claims it is undermining the law by not following regulations on the use of graphic warnings on cigarette packets.

Researchers at Otago University said a new study of bought and discarded cigarette packs showed the regulations were not being met.

Graphic warnings became mandatory in August 2008 and tobacco companies are required to evenly distribute various images over all cigarette packs.

Otago marketing professor Janet Hoek said the most offensive graphics were printed less frequently than other "less disturbing" images.

British American Tobacco today rejected the findings.

Jump to full article »

• VIDEO: Hone Harawira interviewed by Paul Holmes 

PAUL Well talk about the reformed smoker, welcome back, Mr Hone Harawira the Maori MP, he used to smoke, now he wants to lynch the tobacco company executives. The facts are simple, more than 7,000 New Zealanders smoke, nearly half of Maori smoke.

HONE HARAWIRA Seven hundred thousand actually Paul.

PAUL More than 700,000 New Zealanders smoke, nearly half of Maori smoke and one in three Maori die from smoking cigarettes. . . .

PAUL But prohibition on drugs doesn't seem to work, we know from the United States in the 1920s with alcohol, dope is banned in New Zealand as well, but plenty of dope around, P is banned, plenty of P around.

HONE Again, those things still flourish in the blackmarket because most people still want them, most cigarette smokers don't want to smoke, it's an addiction that they don't actually enjoy. You can't create a blackmarket in a situation where people don't really want the product.

Jump to full article »

Maori Affairs Committee to Hold Tobacco Inquiry 

The announcement that the Maori Affairs Select Committee will put the Tobacco Industry under the spotlight, as never before, will be a watershed moment for public health advocates in this country.

“For too long the tobacco industry has hidden in the shadows counting the money it makes off of its customers addiction. This industry has had a particularly devastating impact on the Maori community.” said Shane Bradbrook Director of Te Reo Marama (Maori Tobacco Control Advocates). “I am proud that the Maori Affairs Select Committee, on behalf of Maori, is taking the issue of tobacco addiction directly to those people that are responsible for its daily carnage.”

Whilst proponents will argue that tobacco use is a personal choice, and that users know the dangers, the reality is this industry has a track record of lies and deception that needs to be challenged in a public forum. The Tobacco Industry is about addiction for profit with minimal regard or responsibility for the 5000 deaths of New Zealanders, of which over 400 are Maori, each year.

“The tobacco industry should be held accountable and responsible for its role in killing so many New Zealanders. I would challenge anyone to provide a reason for this industry not being held accountable or even existing in this century,” stated Mr Bradbrook. “This industry has a thin veneer of corporate respectability that allows them to still operate with no regard for our communities.”

Jump to full article »

• Maori committee to investigate smoking 

Maori Party MP Hone Harawira wants tobacco company executives to front up at an inquiry into the industry, despite his threats to lynch them.

Mr Harawira announced today the Maori Affairs parliamentary select committee would hold an inquiry into the impact of tobacco use on Maori.

The committee would talk to ''everybody, before we get to the tobacco companies'', Mr Harawira said.

There was a ''very clear public record'' of the serious negative effects of tobacco and the companies selling it must front up to the public, he said.

The inquiry would require the New Zealand-based chairpeople and chief executives, not spin doctors, to be involved.

Jump to full article »

Tobacco Under Fire 

The Maori Affairs Select Committee today approved a request from Maori Party MP Hone Harawira to hold an inquiry into “the impact of tobacco use on Maori”.

“I thank the National Party leadership and in particular Prime Minister John Key and his deputy Bill English for supporting this because if they hadn’t, it would have died on the table,” Mr Harawira said.

“Special thanks also to Tari (Tariana Turia - Co-leader of the Maori Party and Minister with responsibility for Tobacco) for helping to keep the public focus on this issue, for pushing for higher taxes on tobacco, more money for smoking cessation programmes, and a ban on cigarette displays in shops. All these measures will help reduce the number of tobacco deaths and the financial strain on our health system.

Jump to full article »

• Harawira: To Smoke or to Choke 

Mr Speaker, if it’s true that 5,000 Kiwis die from tobacco every year, then it’s also true that tobacco companies are responsible for the murder of 100,000 New Zealand citizens in the last 25 years.

That’s why the Maori Party supports every effort to stop this appalling waste of life, and to break the cycle of addiction that blights our society:

* 5000 deaths every year;

* 25% of ALL cancer deaths in Aotearoa;

* a major cause of blindness and respiratory illnesses;

* diseases of the urinary tract, pelvis, bladder and the digestive tract;

* 45% Maori / 32% Pasifika / 22% Pakeha / 12% Asians;

* and one in every three Maori dying from smoking cigarettes.

That’s why the Maori Party is doing everything it can to reduce tobacco consumption, and to hold accountable those companies responsible for the deaths of those 5000 Kiwis every year.

Mr Speaker, following on from the World Health Organisation recommendations of a mix of taxation, cessation, health promotion, legislation and research strategies, Tariana Turia, co-leader of the Maori Party and Minister responsible for Tobacco Control, has called for:

* a review of smoking cessation programmes;

* an increase in tobacco tax;

* and a ban on the display of tobacco products here in Aotearoa; a law recently enacted in New South Wales, next year in the Northern Territory and ACT, and in Victoria and Tasmania in 2011; because tobacco displays are a very devious and very potent form of marketing a killer product, normalising cigarettes in the eyes of vulnerable kids, and hooking them into buying smokes from a very young age; and banning displays works – we know that because when they did it in Saskatchewan, smoking rates actually dropped 25% in just 6 years!! . . .

To be brutally frank Mr Speaker, I’d like to lynch these #$^&** tobacco company executives.

I’ve watched too many people die horrible deaths because of their addiction to tobacco, and I’ve seen too much pain and heartache in those left behind to want to be objective about this.

And I’ve heard too many chilling comments from tobacco executives like – ‘We don’t smoke this shit. We reserve that right to the young, the poor, the black and the stupid’ – to have any respect for these people at all.

Hopefully Mr Speaker, with the help of the people of New Zealand, the support of my colleagues on the Maori Affairs Select Committee, and the determination of the members of this House, we can finally bring an end to all this unnecessary waste of beautiful life.

Jump to full article »

To be brutally frank Mr Speaker, I’d like to lynch these #$^&** tobacco company executives.
Hone Harawira, MP for Te Tai Tokerau. Tobacco companies seem to have roused New Zealand's famously war-like Maori.

Labour supports inquiry into tobacco 

Labour looks forward to being involved in a Maori Affairs Select Committee Inquiry into tobacco, Associate Maori Affairs Spokesperson Kelvin Davis says.

“Over 40 percent of Maori adults smoke compared to less than 20 percent of the general population. We can simply not sit by and watch helplessly as our people die from their addiction to tobacco,” Kelvin Davis said.

“Too many people smoke and too many children are picking up this lethal habit, which is why we support an inquiry that will seek to make real changes.

“Labour supports banning of tobacco displays and we support programmes that support people to give up smoking.

Jump to full article »

Health Ministry supports tobacco display ban 

The Ministry of Health has today confirmed its support for a ban on tobacco displays as part of a range of measures required to ensure smoking rates continue to decline in New Zealand, Labour Associate Health spokesperson Iain Lees-Galloway says.

“Ministry of Health officials today told the Maori Affairs Select Committee that they support banning tobacco displays and that their advice to the Government is to proceed with enacting a ban,” Iain Lees-Galloway said.

“The issue of tobacco displays reveals a growing division within the Government. Health Minister Tony Ryall is opposed to a ban despite mounting evidence that getting tobacco products out of sight and out of mind will help decrease the uptake of smoking amongst young people.

Jump to full article »

ASH Delighted With Inquiry Decision 

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is delighted the Maori Affairs Select Committee has approved a request from MP Hone Harawira to hold an inquiry into the impact of tobacco use on Maori.

“The tobacco industry needs to be held to account and this forum provides an excellent place to do just that. As an industry that has such a devastating impact on tanagta whenua, it is only right that they must front before the committee,” said ASH communications manager Michael Colhoun.

Jump to full article »